CHAPTER 28: SHORT FIGHT.

Inside the mini hall, the space path mage wasn’t fairing well. His agitation towards the boy had grown to the point of distracting him from the fight.

The woman’s claws, he came to learn, were heated up and sliced through his flesh like soggy paper.

The heat was getting to him, making him drift away into a sleepy drowsiness.

The mist he would "carry" away, seemed to be never ending. The boy or the man kept supplying more of it, and it was stinging.

A rat had also managed to bite into his skin and it seemed to have poison. Combined with the drowsiness from the heat, he felt lethargic, his muscles not feeling like quite his own.

He had landed several fatal slices and stabs on the naked woman but she seemed to instantaneously heal.

Everytime she did heal herself, though, he noticed the number of rats decline.

What.... What kind of magic is this?

He knew the paths of magic to be Life, Elemental, Fate, death, Force and Space paths.

Even though the life mages did have healing magic, it wasn’t like anything he was seeing right now, not to mention the other strange abilities.

He turned to the strange boy who had not moved the entire time.

Hadrian’s eyes narrowed.

I had wanted a vessel, but it seems there won’t be enough time.

Injured knee left his guard at the door. Both him and the tall woman vessel charged at the space path mage.

Disoriented, however, they still struggled to land a fatal blow on him. Hadrian’s heart raced. Down in the basement, Haldon was turning to face his short brown haired vessel.

Injured knee jumped at the mage but the mage simply stepped to the right, dodging, and stabbed injured knee in his left ribs.

Hadrian winced. He’d also run out of Rat vessels to heal himself.

Injured knee grabbed the mage’s hand that had the dagger inside his ribs. Pulling him down with the strength of the horses, the mage affected by poison, heat and hot stinging mist, fell on top of him.

The tall woman vessel took the advantage and came down on the mage with the reinforced claws.

The mage tried to fight back, but being held down and being attacked from the top, there was little he could do.

Injured knee’s naked body was washed over with the mages blood as the struggles died down.

With the mage dying, the essence fighting back weakened greatly.

Just then, Haldon burst through the door.

His eyes took a second to study the scene.

In quick motion, he was already on top of the Hadrian vessels and the mage.

Separating them, he sliced off the head of the naked woman and man. Frowning, He looked down at the mage who was now dead.

Haldon’s head turned to the boy with a sharp and predatory look.

Smiling, the boy’s head and body shrunk as fur appeared on his skin.

Haldon observed as the boy disappeared and a rat took his place, his clothes falling to the ground.

...

On top of his horse vessels, Hadrian was already galloping away from the metal work building.

He’d used up a lot of his essence to use the state of the phantom vessels in the dull white space and the lingering effect of grasping at the space path mage’s essence was still strong.

His eyes felt heavy and his horses ran chaotically. Hawk Hadrian meanwhile struggled to fly, only jumping from roof to roof flapping his wings.

Back to us three again.

A half smile was on Hadrian’s face as the cool night breeze batted his face and naked body.

The Alia vessel was lucky, she’d substituted places with the short brown haired man and as such, was in his clothes.

He did not stop for half an hour. By this point, the strain on his muscles and essence was unbearable.

He made his way to one of the lower parts of the northern districts.

It wasn’t that much different from Calos district. He did manage to find a secluded place.

His horse vessels fell to the ground the moment he got off.

He took out some spare clothes from the bags on the horses and put them on.

Luckily, just like eating food, he could substitute the "rest" state of some of his vessels to others.

So, the Horse Hadrian’s were now completely knocked out. They were in dangerously low levels of mechanical control. If he was not careful, he could lose them.

Tugging at the force in his centre, Hadrian once more found himself in that dull white space.

The misty information, like routine, rose up and formed into textual information infront of him.

[ Authority : unity.]

[ Authority attributes: ]

[ I : Take over the Mind, soul and body of another being.]

[ Chain : all vessels are one. ]

[ Substitute : Mind. Essence. Flesh. ]

[ Current vessels.]

[ Basic lifeform : 3 ]

[ Basic sentient lifeform : 0 ]

[ Ascended lifeform : 2 ]

[ Mutated lifeform : 0 ]

Dismissing the information. He summoned the new rank one core he’d obtained.

In appearance, it was not that much different from the other rank one core. However, you could sense it had a different aura to it.

I’ve lost my fighters and greatly exposed myself just to obtain this.

He turned to the three hunter vessels who were now just phantom vessels of themselves.

Alia floated above the fog, her thin body covered by the mist.

Hadrian summoned her closer. He tried pushing the space path essence core inside her as well. The elemental core already inside of her greatly repelled the new core.

No matter.

Hadrian shrugged it off, returning Alia to her original position.

As long as she can still use the essence.

He took the space path core for himself.

He looked down at the dense fog, still feeling like something was changing inside it.

Back in the real world, he took out a coin and placed it on his left palm.

Focusing on the new core inside him, he channeled its essence and snapped his fingers.

Nothing happened to the coin.

Sigh, I just have to practice more.